Activists rally for immigrants' rights

By Andy Metzger, State House News Service

Updated:
04/09/2013 08:32:40 AM EDT

BOSTON -- Hoping to build on recent successes, immigrants'-rights activists rallied a packed Statehouse Monday with talk of a future with more limited enforcement of immigration law and more opportunities for those who are living in the state without the proper immigration status.

"Many legislators have your back, are standing with you, not only for federal immigration reform but for state as well," state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, told the crowd.

While lawmakers and advocates laid out goals for reform, former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas spoke about his experience since the age of 16 when he learned his green card was "fake."

A native of the Philippines who arrived in the United States as a child and wrote about his experience in the New York Times Magazine in 2011, Vargas said attitudes should change so that people like him are not seen as "criminals and foreigners" but as productive members of American society.

"I am probably the most privileged undocumented immigrant in America," said Vargas, noting he has spent two years publicly proclaiming his immigration status. He said, "I am not among one of the 1.5 million immigrants... who have been deported in the past four years."

While much of the nation's focus has been on Washington D.C.'s inability to agree on a comprehensive set of immigration-law reforms, Eva Millona of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said she sees glints of hope.

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"The tide is turning my friends," said Millona, noting that the Associated Press had dropped the term "illegal immigrant," that President Barack Obama had deferred enforcement action on certain immigrants who arrived as children, and the state Legislature passed protections for temporary workers last year.

Millona and Eldridge both laid out an agenda that includes driver's licenses for people who don't have valid immigration documents, enshrining into law Gov. Deval Patrick's executive decision to allow in-state tuition rates for certain undocumented immigrants, and legislation that would limit the cooperation of local law enforcement with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"We need to drive, because like you, we need to go to work," said Vargas, who said his driver's license had been taken away.

Treasurer Steven Grossman, who also backed codifying in-state tuition, roused the crowd with a declaration about the shared history of many Americans.

"Let's send a message to every one of the 6.6 million people who live in Massachusetts: We are all immigrants," Grossman said.

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